Employee and customer frustrations are intrinsically linked to bad communication

You can scapegoat just about anyone when relationships break down with customers, be it the business or the worker. But in reality, technology is likely at fault

Despite its good intentions, customer service is often an exercise in frustration for consumers. Most are familiar with the process of looking for some way to get a query answered and then being passed from one specialist to another, having to repeat their questions and details several times with no guarantee of resolution. At the end of such an exchange, many of us can relate to them vowing to take their business elsewhere.

While it’s easy to blame the customer-facing employees for communication breakdowns or the company for poor training, the root of the problem is more complex. According to a global study by RingCentral, the cloud-based communications provider, commissioned with CITE Research, workers are frustrated with disjointed communications technologies preventing them from giving great customer experiences.

In fact, the findings uncovered some powerful connections between staff and consumer experiences.

The ever-widening expectation gap

Rapid expansions of quality digital channels have given customers higher expectations for service than ever before, as well as more opportunity to be delighted or disappointed with every interaction with a company. If these expectations aren’t met, businesses can face serious repercussions. For example, RingCentral’s study shows the average customer stopped doing business with brands roughly four times in the past year after a bad service experience.

The woes of out of date tech

RingCentral’s study highlights customer-facing staff continue to struggle with the communications tech at their disposal, which is a major reason for the gap between a customer’s expectations and reality. For customers, bad tech stops them communicating with companies via their preferred mode. And for workers, it doesn’t let them easily collaborate with colleagues for help in resolving customer issues.

Time-wasting

According to the RingCentral research, 74% of customer-facing workers waste time flipping between apps when trying to resolve customer queries. It goes without saying this isn’t conducive to a great consumer experience and wastes up to 60 minutes a day for over two-thirds of employees.

The pursuit of happiness

No matter how often you stress giving service with a smile, you simply won’t get it when workers are sad. And it turns out happiness decreases for 75% of employees when communications technologies hinder productivity, with 88% agreeing disjointed tech hurts workflow and diminishes job satisfaction.

Customer support leaders who understand employee engagement and customer satisfaction are intrinsically connected and at an advantage to give their business the best results. Embracing an all-in-one collaboration platform gives employees a unified workflow and seamless communications when responding to customers and collaborating with colleagues. What’s more, it lets customers connect with companies through channels of their own choice.

This article comes courtesy of RingCentral, the cloud-based communication system provider